To:THE NARROW COUNCIL OF PEOPLE’S COMMISSARS[1]

Written:Written on August 19, 1921Published:First published in 1945 inLenin Miscellany XXXV.

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1976,

      Moscow,Volume 45,

      pages247b-248a.Translated:Yuri SdobnikovTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet ArchiveYou may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

Ourhouses areterriblyfouled up. The law is not worth
a damn. There must be a tenfoldmore preciseand fullerindication of the persons,responsible(not one, but many,
one after another), andremorselessincarceration.

Ido not agree without these additions:

1)apartfrom the manager, the responsibility shall also
fall on his “deputy”.

Theremust be a deputy;

2)apartfrom them, the responsibility shall also fall on
acontrol commissionconsisting of tenants. There must be
such a commission. At least three persons, who shouldalways be available, ortheir deputies.

3)Allthese persons shall be subject both to legal and
toadministrativeresponsibility.

Thatis not enough.

Thismust also be added:

1)responsibilityof the tenants for failure to elect a
manager and his “deputy”;

2)ditto,for failure to elect a control commission;

3)itshall be the duty of the manager and his deputy
and the control commission to see that a responsible person
(either the manager himself or his deputy or a member
of the control commission) is on dutydaily

apartfrom specially employed persons(yard-keeper, etc.)wheresuchare employed;

4)responsibilityof tenants in houses of less than 10
flats.

Howis the tenants’ responsibility to be established? This
must be considered, and a way found.

[1]Thesenotes were written by Lenin in connection with the
regulations “On House Management”, adopted by the Narrow C.P.C.
on August 8, 1921, which made the house manager most
responsible for the good repair of housing facilities. On August 12 and
22, 1921, the Narrow C.P.C. examined the question of
elaborating the additional measures proposed by Lenin to enhance
responsibility for the maintenance of houses in good repair.